Bizarre Facts About Tycho Brahe

By | June 28, 2019

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Tycho Brahe. Source: (thefamouspeople.com)

Tycho Brahe was a Danish astronomer whose observations laid the groundwork for the likes of Sir Isaac Newton. As a scientist, his work was unprecedented. But there are a few details about his life that are unexpected. Some are even downright bizarre.

He was Raised by His Kidnapper

Tycho Ottesen Brahe was born on December 14, 1546, in Knudstrup, Scania, Denmark, to a wealthy family. His father, Otte Brahe, was a privy councilor, and his mother, Beate Bille, was an aristocrat. Brahe was the second of twelve children born to the couple. It’s not that unusual that he was kidnapped as a young child by his uncle and aunt, Jorgen Brahe and Inger Oxe. After all, family members are usually the most likely suspects in a kidnapping case and Jorgen was in need of an heir as he had no children of his own. The strange part is that Brahe’s parents let Jorgen keep him and raise him at his castle in Tostrup, Scania. Perhaps with twelve children, they decided they could spare one. Ironically, Jorgen would die in 1565 without making Brahe his legal heir, therefore, Brahe received nothing from his estate.

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University of Copenhagen city campus. Source: (Wikipedia.org)

He was an Academic in a Military Family

It was a tradition in the Brahe family that the male children would become warriors. But Inger, who came from an academic family, persuaded her husband that their abductee deserved an education. He began school at the age of six and moved on to study law at the University of Copenhagen in 1559, at the age of twelve.